Kolkata: Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee won’t attend Karnataka CM-designate Siddaramaiah’s oath-taking ceremony in Bengaluru Saturday. She has instead decided to send a parliamentarian from her party, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, to represent her at the function, ThePrint has learnt.
Following its 135-of-244-seats victory in this month’s Karnataka assembly elections, Congress invited a host of Opposition leaders to Siddaramaiah’s oath-taking ceremony, in what is being perceived as an attempt to use the event as a platform to try and unite them against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Banerjee’s decision to send a representative suggests a calibrated approach, indicating her willingness to break bread with the Congress as part of a larger Opposition unity, without committing herself to a formation led by the Congress.
After Siddaramaiah spoke to the West Bengal CM Thursday, an official invite from the Congress was sent to the Trinamool chairperson the same evening at the State Secretariat. While accepting the formal invitation, Banerjee said she wouldn’t be able to attend the event due to previously scheduled work.
Confirming the development, Trinamool Congress leader in the Rajya Sabha, Derek O’Brien, said in a tweet Friday that Dastidar will represent the Trinamool at Saturday’s ceremony at Bengaluru’s Sree Kanteerava Stadium.
“The chief minister-designate of Karnataka Siddaramaiah and his other colleagues called to personally invite All India Trinamool Congress Chairperson & Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the swearing-in tomorrow. She conveyed her best wishes and designated Dr. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Trinamool’s Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha, to attend the ceremony,” O’Brien tweeted.
Meanwhile, the Congress termed the CM’s absence from the event as “politics of ambiguity”.
Speaking to ThePrint, Congress MP and Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, “It is her personal decision, and she believes in politics of ambiguity. It is a matter of courtesy to attend the oath-taking ceremony. We have invited all the chief ministers who spoke out against the BJP, but Mamata has decided to stay away.”
Political analyst Udayan Bandyopadhyay, however, said it was not imperative for the West Bengal chief minister to attend the oath-taking ceremony in Karnataka.
“It isn’t imperative for the chief minister to attend the swearing-in ceremony in order to show solidarity. She is sending one experienced party MP. I think that’s a prudent decision,” he told ThePrint.
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Call for Opposition unity
The Congress has reportedly invited a host of opposition leaders, including Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray and former Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah, among others.
After the Karnataka results triggered a debate about the possibility of a larger Opposition alliance, Mamata Banerjee had said that she was willing to support the Congress, but the latter shouldn’t fight against her in West Bengal.
However, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had dismissed the condition immediately claiming that the Congress would continue to fight against the BJP and TMC in West Bengal.
Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee will be in New Delhi next week to attend a scheduled NITI Aayog meeting and is also likely to hold talks with Opposition leaders on the sideline.
Last month, she suggested that all Opposition leaders meet in Patna to chart out a strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Speaking to ThePrint about the West Bengal CM giving a miss to Siddaramaiah’s oath-taking, a senior TMC source said it wasn’t possible for her to travel on a 24-hour notice as she has a Z+ security cover.
The leader, who did not wish to be named, added that Congress has been “gracious” to Trinamool since the last parliament session.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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